Justice: UT running mates play to each other

Commentary: UT running mates play to each other

RICHARD JUSTICE, Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle |
March 20, 2009

Dexter Pittman (34) and A.J. Abrams (3) have become best friends and have pushed the Longhorns into the NCAA Tournament.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — They’ve been best friends since that first summer together, and through the years, A.J. Abrams and Dexter Pittman have supported, tortured and amused one another.

“We weren’t always best friends,” Pittman said. “He didn’t speak to me for about the first two months. I went to coach Todd (Wright) and asked him to move me.”

Once Abrams began speaking, he didn’t stop. When they’re together, Abrams is the one whispering insults, encouragement, telling him what to eat and what not to.

As they were approaching a postgame news conference Thursday night, Abrams told Pittman, “Try to put some bass in your voice, Dex.”

Every time Pittman opened his mouth, or attempted to open his mouth, Abrams said something barely audible. People watching the clips at home might have wondered why Pittman would begin an answer and then laugh.

“That’s A.J. giving him the business,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said after his team opened the NCAA Tournament with a workmanlike 76-62 victory over Minnesota.

They make an odd couple. Pittman is 6-10, 298 pounds, one of the strongest players in college basketball, someone capable of taking over games.

Abrams is 5-11, 160 pounds, a deadly shooter and a quick, relentless worker. To watch him run through one, two and three screens in a possession, to see him literally wear out defender after defender, is to appreciate that his heart matches his physical skills.

“I call them the flea and the elephant,” Barnes said.

If you caught this Texas team on the right night this season, you’d swear you were seeing a Final Four club. Other nights, the Longhorns looked like they didn’t even belong in the Tournament.

What makes them dangerous is their size, depth and experience. And they’ve got an unstoppable force in the low post and the perimeter.

This was their night. Abrams threw in five straight 3-pointers during an electric stretch of the second half in which UT turned a five-point game into a 15-point lead.

“When he gets his feet set and gets his balance,” Barnes said, “you’re really surprised when he misses.”

Abrams threw in 26 points in all, and his buddy added 17 as the Longhorns advanced into a second-round game against Duke on Saturday.

Opponents have thrown an assortment of defenses at Abrams this season, and along the way, the Longhorns were forced to channel their offense through Pittman or Damion James or others.

Texas is built around defense and rebounding, but when Abrams is on the way he was against Minnesota, the Longhorns are capable of staying with any team.

“The basket just looks wide-open when you’re going like that,” Abrams said. “You feel you can put it in from anywhere.”

They have stories to tell. Pittman, from Rosenberg, has shed more than 80 pounds since his arrival at Texas thanks to his own will to be great and the work of Wright, the Texas strength coach, and others.

He played so poorly against Oklahoma, essentially giving in to Blake Griffin, that Barnes benched him for a game.

Abrams was in his ear, encouraging him, telling him not to pout, urging him to learn from the experience.

Likewise, when the Longhorns lost at Texas A&M, Abrams spoke to almost no one from the time the game ended until the next day at practice.

That time, it was Pittman telling him that his teammates fed off him, that this was the time to pull together, not split apart.

Abrams, the son of a former Secret Service agent, learned to play with his father forcing him to shoot over broomsticks to simulate taller players.

The Gophers had seen him on video, but his speed and drive have to be experienced. Maybe that was his advantage in this opening-round game.

Afterward, the Longhorns laughed it up, a loose, confident bunch, a Tournament-tested group anxious to test itself against the Blue Devils. As reporters gathered around Abrams after the game, Pittman teased him.

“He probably won’t tell you I beat him in a 3-point shooting contest at practice,” Pittman said.